About the Author

Chris Shiflett is an author and speaker who leads the web application security practice at OmniTI.

Learning from Digg (DeCSS 2.0)

Wed, 02 May 2007 at 06:50:43 GMT
7 Comments
References

As I write this, Digg is offline after being overrun with stories about the HD DVD key that was recently leaked.

Why are such stories so popular? Primarily because the original story about the leak was removed, which itself was a reaction to recent threats by AACS LA, and these events have garnered widespread attention. Jay Adelson briefly explains the situation and asks for some cooperation:

We all need to work together to protect Digg from exposure to lawsuits that could very quickly shut us down.

Slashdot's story is unlikely to suffer the same fate, so many Digg users are questioning Digg's stance on this issue. To be fair, this has very little to do with Digg specifically, and I wish them the best of luck addressing the current situation.

The real issue is that the traditional notion of damage control doesn't really work in a world where information spreads so quickly. I have previously expressed concerns about mob mentality, and this situation is another lesson. Prior to the recent threats, most people didn't care whether they could write their own software to watch movies. (The key was leaked months ago.) This wasn't big news.

Now it's everywhere.

Is it just me, or is this DeCSS 2.0?

About This Post

Learning from Digg (DeCSS 2.0) was posted on Wed, 02 May 2007 at 06:50:43 GMT.

7 Comments

1. Chris Shiflett said:

Kevin Rose has responded now as well:

We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Wed, 02 May 2007 at 07:01:27 GMT Link

2. Brian Dailey said:

Wow, I respect that Rose has decided to deal with the consequences. It will be interesting to see how this is dealt with over the long run (and whether or not it will be a real problem or not).
Wed, 02 May 2007 at 12:40:49 GMT Link

3. microdesign said:

Hi man,

i was just passing by. great site design and cool article thank u very much!
Fri, 04 May 2007 at 18:24:22 GMT Link

4. Chris Shiflett said:

John Dvorak's thoughts on this are interesting.
Sat, 05 May 2007 at 04:38:34 GMT Link

5. kelye said:

since you've mentioned DeCSS ... another nice case to read about is Niels Ferguson's research in HDCP
Sat, 05 May 2007 at 20:39:43 GMT Link

6. Chris Shiflett said:

Thanks for posting that, Kelye.
Sat, 05 May 2007 at 20:54:36 GMT Link

7. Margret said:

In my opinon Digg should have kept the story/hack on thier site.
Thu, 10 May 2007 at 19:41:40 GMT Link

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